When was 21 years old, my mum gift to me is an insurance policy which i retained till date. The coverage deemed adequate when i was 21 years old and now after more than 15 years, is grossly inadequate.
Coupled with recent encounters of people around me falling sick. (i.e cancer), it is time to reassess my coverage.
Some takeaways from search online:
The topmost insurance policies that in my opinion should get are in order of priority:
Life, hospitalisation/medical, critical illness (early or late stage).
Life = Death or Total Permanent Disability "TDP"
Hospitalisation/medical "H"= on a reimbursement basis. In my opinion, no need to buy too much. But of course, there is a usually a claim limit and you need to assess if this is sufficient for your needs.
Critical illness "CI" = late stage or early stage. at the moment i am more concerned with early stage CI
Insurance is expensive so you need to balance between your coverage and the amount of money you spend.
Note: There is a waiting period from time of purchase for the critical illness policy i purchase. 90 days for critical illness and 180 days for early critical illness.
Ask:
- Any exclusions. i.e if your family has a history of breast cancer if your policy excludes coverage. if you have been infected by covid any lung related issue you may not be covered going forward
- Any survival/waiting period from diagnosis
- Single pay/ Multi-pay for the same critical illness
- Related to (3) what happens when you claim. i.e your policy ends or terminate
- If you have overlapping policies what to do?
- To what age are you covered? from what i see online. The coverage age i usually 65,75 and 100 years
- Is this a limited pay policy (you pay for a limited number of years) or you need to pay till your coverage age
Compare:
A useful tool you can use to check what you have been quoted: compareFirst
Which agent to choose?
Choose one you are comfortable with and that some you can trust to help you and when you need to claim.
Preferably someone who is in the industry long enough.
My policies:
This is my layman assessment and understanding.
- Life insurance with add on late stage CI at 30% cover of life purchased at 21 years old. (CI terminates at 60 yrs old, Life coverage till 100 yrs old.)
- Saving policy purchased at 24 years old, 25 years term (savings policy)
- NEW- Mortgage insurance purchase covers death/TDP
- purpose to cover mortgage upon death or TPD or late stage CI.
- Each owner need to purchase one policy, coverage determine by how much cover you need not related to mortgage.
- protection coverage not affected by % of ownership of property.
- Premium is fixed on entry age (only for level term) can terminate policy at any point in time
- max coverage till 65 yrs
- NEW - Limited 20 yrs term life insurance with CI same amount add on early stage CI 50% of life cover till 100 yrs old
- eg. coverage is 10K for life and CI, early stage CI is 5K. When claim during early stage CI, receive 5K and balance of policy still in force. if late stage, claim full coverage, policy terminates
